Lefebvre & Fils Gallery is pleased to present Jennie Jieun Lee: Smile Purgatory, the Korean-American artist’s first solo exhibition in France.

Following Tout feu Tout flamme the group show featuring the ceramic work of ten artists, Lefebvre & Fils Gallery continues its exploration of the relationship between this age-old medium and young contemporary artists.

Though her work is grounded in formal training, Jennie Jieun Lee has made a conscious decision to move away from an approach focused purely on technical virtuosity. This experimental attitude gives free reign to imagination alongside classical ceramic forms and technique. Using methods more commonly associated with abstract painting, multiple layers of glazes are brushed, dripped and poured, surfaces built up and cut down.

In Smile Purgatory, Lee treats ceramics as a proving ground for catharsis and redemption. Hand-thrown vessels sit next to bizarre masks. In an explosion of colours and shapes, we find secret stories, horror, comedy; a celebratory analysis of life. While harboring traces of pain and fear, the layered masks and vessels revel in riotous color and intuitive form. Instigated by personal history, Lee’s project conjures an agoraphobic freedom, a contemplative, associative space.

This will be the first time that Jennie Jieun Lee has showcased her ceramic works in France. The exhibition will be held from June 13th to October 11th, 2014 at Lefebvre & Fils Gallery, which has been specializing in the art of ceramics since 1880.

Jennie Jieun Lee was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in New York. She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and at the San Francisco Institute of Art. For several years, Jennie Jieun Lee was an associate designer for the luxury clothing brand, Libertine.

Whether through painting, printmaking or ceramics, Jennie Jieun Lee reinterprets historical forms and techniques through the lens of her unique personal history.

Her work has been shown in Europe and the United States. Most recently, she was in the 2014 group show, Bad Fog, curated by Eddie Martinez at Martos Gallery in New York City.